Bind
by YuMto
Summary: Society expectations were everything, that is what a perfectionist think. To a dropout, nothing is better than his own dream. Both with opposing view of living didn't know the low probability of their encounter would come and change their lives.
1. 01: Enter

_Author: YuMto  
>Disclaimer: KHR does not belong to me.<br>Beta reader: Chocolate and caramel_

_In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed._  
><em><strong>Khalil Gibran<strong>_

In an all-girls school, the students were all packing their stuffs. It was time for them to go home. However in certain classrooms, that was not the case.

"Why do we have to do this assignment in groups of two?" A brown haired pony tailed girl glanced to two girls who were just complaining about the assignment they just received. She, herself, found it unnecessary as well. It was only a report assignment. How hard could it be? The only thing she was against with was she had to be paired up with someone who would not be serious in completing a project, Sasagawa Kyoko. Of course, she didn't know Sasagawa-san that well, but still.

"I'm sorry but I can't do the assignment with you today," Kyoko pleaded with apologetic eyes. Kyoko's best friend was waiting by the door.

"Ha-hi! I'll do everything by myself," the brown haired girl spoke. Before she could continue her sentence, Kyoko interrupted, "No! I'll do my part. We'll do together tomorrow." Kyoko's outburst and smile caught the girl off guard. It wasn't because she hated Kyoko. She wanted to do everything alone. To her, the others were just nuisance to her work. Yet the brunette just nodded, not having the energy or the mood to argue back.

* * *

><p>A silvered hair boy was walking in a crowd. In Namimori, where <em>respected people<em> lived, he, Gokudera Hayato, could not fit in the so-called clichéd crowd. It's not that there was anything wrong with his sense of style. He was wearing a rugged pants, black sleeveless shirt and had a pierced ring on his bottom lip. It was expected that he could not fit into the society with appearance like that. Yet he didn't cared, merely roaming in broad daylight, ignorant of the stares and whispers around him.

'Piece of shits,' he thought as he intentionally bumped into an older man. Just when the man was about to shout, he glared. The glare was enough to shut the man up. The boy was clearly not in the mood. He just spat on the man's shoe and continued walking.

"Hey! You're early for practice!" The boy's mood turned a complete 180 degrees as he turned toward the sweet voice that called him. The voiced belonged to Sawada Tsunayoshi, someone who made him believed in his own dreams. After all, Tsuna was the leader of their band; The Vongola Familia.

"It beats everything just to see you, Tsuna-sama!" The silver boy chirped. Tsuna just sweatdropped as the two walked together toward their hangout.

* * *

><p>This is a story of two different individual going through different paths, Gokudera Hayato and Miura Haru.<p> 


	2. 02:

**A/N: **I'm sorry for rushing in my first chapter. Yes, this is set in AU. The characters are in their first/second years of Namimori High. Unlike the real KHR, the girls go to a different school which is an all girls. The arcobalenos will be in their adult form to suit the story line.

_Author: YuMto  
>Disclaimer: KHR does not belong to me.<br>Beta reader: Chocolate and caramel_

A storm was coming. Hayato could feel it but he just couldn't think of what was the threat in that fine day where they were going to try the rehearsal chorus.

"Gokudera-kun, you look so pale," Tsuna stopped playing his guitar.

Hayato turned to Tsuna, giving him his brightest smile as usual, "Don't worry, Tsuna-sama! We can practice anytime!" Tsuna was the song composer and guitarist of the band. Hayato had always respected Tsuna ever since the day Tsuna tried to convince their teachers that Hayato was not guilty of vandalistic acts around their school. Tsuna was also the first person that did not laugh at his ambition, in fact encourage him and would be happy to listen. He vowed to be useful for Tsuna and never leave his side. "You don't need to force yourself-" Before Tsuna could finish his sentence, Tsuna felt something thumped on his back. "Ow, ow, ow!" he turned around to see a rubber mallet on the floor.

"Tsuna, don't be selfish. You don't have much time to slack," A man with black suit appeared and sat on their basement couch. _I even didn't notice him entering_, Hayato thought.

"R-Reborn! Did you j-" The man took a toy pistol and shot some kind of bullets to Tsuna's stomach.

"Tsuna-sama!" Hayato checked Tsuna's stomach to find four small pinballs. His expression became horrified. To think their manager was someone abusive. He couldn't complain though. He knew they could never change manager. Back then, he hated other people before he transferred to Japan. Hayato remembered how he received the opportunity to fly off from Italy to Namimori with Reborn's request. Even now, he still couldn't find out how Reborn found and managed to coerce him into coming.

"Has it started yet?" A black haired boy wearing baseball uniform entered. The boy grinned around happily as he moved toward the sofa. But before he could sit next to Reborn, something was shot near his toe. It was the same pinball like the ones that hit Tsuna. Everyone in the room stared at Reborn in mix of horror and terrified amusement.

"A guy who is late because he can't quit his club has no right to relax with this time limit," Reborn glared while showing the three of them his silver toy pistol. A talented baseball player, Yamamoto Takeshi was naïve idiot who seemed quite fond of pissing him off. But as much Hayato hated to admit it, he couldn't ignore Takeshi's talent for bass. That was one of the reasons he was in the band; Reborn _made_ (more like force) him enter.

"Eek! Reborn! You need to stop doing that!" Tsuna covered his stomach as he said that. "We haven't found our lead singer and drummer yet!"

"Hmph. Didn't I tell you, Dame-Tsuna last week? You're singing." Hayato quickly congratulate the brunet, who dramatically pale in horror.

Hearing the news, Tsuna didn't know whether if he should faint or curse the man. To add more salt to his wounds, Reborn slyly added, "You have five days to tune up your voice, Dame-Tsuna. It can't be help with a week left for the real thing."

Takeshi chuckled, "it's okay, Tsuna. If it's a small crowd, there's nothing to worry about."

Reborn turned, "Who said anything with a small crowd?"

"BEAT TO THE EXTREME!" A boy with white hair burst the door of the basement open and his fist uppercut an empty space air. The grand entrance surprised the rest of the boys, excluding Reborn.

"Who-"

"Aren't you-?"

"What the heck are you doing to Tsuna-sama's door?"

"Hahaha!"

Reborn shot Tsuna out of the blue to silent everyone in the room. He then turned to the white haired boy and introduced him, "This is our new member. With this, we can enter a real stage with real crowd and real performance." Takeshi was smiling in delight while Tsuna gapped his mouth open.

"Reborn! We're not ready yet!"

"How long will you keep practicing the same thing, Tsuna? We have our drummer now. You, as the boss, should be ready for anything. Do you think these guys still lack practice? It's only your vocal now." Tsuna looked at Gokudera and Takeshi. Takeshi was waiting for Tsuna's response while Gokudera was staring suspiciously at the white-haired boy.

"What kind of instrument can you play? I won't forgive you if you ruin Tsuna-sama's debut!" Tsuna couldn't help but sweatdropped as Gokudera dramatically gesticulated at the boy, who was staring in interest.

"I am Sasagawa Ryohei and I played the DRUM TO THE EXTREME!" Pulling a pair of beaten drumstick, Ryohei quickly bang away on the drum, Tsuna and Gokudera winced at the _extreme_ lack of tune.

"Hahaha," Takeshi laughed it off, "Sasagawa senpai, you're pretty good at that." Takeshi took his bass and stood next to Ryohei and played along with the random tune that Ryohei started.

As they keep on playing and ignoring the two boys, Gokudera became furious. "That's not the boss's music! I'll show you the greatness and power in the boss's song!" Hayato started to play his keyboard, getting off tune from what we would call music. The three played all evening to nighttime. By the end of the practice, Reborn shot everyone using his toy gun.

Tsuna mumbled upon hearing the horrible teamwork play, "How can everyone be so carefree with our performance coming soon?"

"I'm surprised you getting all laid-back now, Dame Tsuna," the boy paled when he remembered Reborn was still in the room. He turned to find Reborn swinging his rubber mallet. "Time for your extra vocal lesson, Dame-Tsuna."

"HIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

* * *

><p>After bidding his goodbye to Tsuna and his mother that night, Hayato stopped by a bookstore. The bookstore was a second home to Hayato. He met the old couple who owned the store and during middle school, he would come by every day to see the couple or buy books. The couple has always welcomed him, even after he pierced his ears. Tonight, he felt checking the couple after feeling slight uneasy in Tsuna's house. When he entered the bookstore, he overheard a girl's shriek. He became agitated and ran over to third bookshelf on the right where he heard the scream. There, he saw a girl with a brown pony tailed girl with her butt on the floor, showing her white panties. In front of her was a book and there was a spider on top of the book.<p>

"What happened?" Hayato asked. The girl suddenly realized that a guy saw her disastrous state. Pulling her skirt uniform down to cover her revealed panty, she screamed, "Pervert! Pedo! Brute!"

"WH-WHAT?"

"Oh my, oh my," an old man came into the scene. He was holding his back and looking around the area. He took noticed of the girl's position and teary eyes, and turned to Hayato. "Hayato-chan, you can't harass a girl like that."

"What! Why would I harass this ugly stupid girl?" Hayato pointed at the girl who was still on the floor. "Hahi! Haru is not stupid nor ugly!" "And it's her own fault, grandpa. She was the one who fall on her own. Why did I get insults?" The girl gritted her teeth towards Gokudera.

"Sometimes, a man needs to quiet down if a woman insults," the old man smiled slyly as he blew his pipe. "I myself wouldn't go against your grandma."

"Ohoho, right you are, dear," an old woman entered, leaning against a cane to support her. "Hayato-chan, please help the young lady up and bring her to the counter. I made tea for you two."

Hayato complained and mumbled for being ordered to help the girl who was rude. Although he wanted to ignore it, he couldn't ignore the grandmother. She was the second who stood up for him when he got expelled from his first year of high school. That's why he didn't want to cause any more problems for the strange couple.

The girl was reluctant to receive his help to stand up at first. Upon watching the spider moving, she jumped, screaming "Hahi!" and unconsciously accepted Gokudera's help. _So it was the spider_, Hayato snickered. It was understandable that girls would freak out like that. Though, he disliked to be blamed on.

The old lady motioned the girl to sit down beside her in front of the counter. The old man sat down in a nearby chair while Hayato stood beside the old man, telling the couple that he wanted to leave soon. The more he stayed at the bookstore, the more he became aware of the pain in his stomach. Hayato wondered if seeing Tsuna's pain caused him to empathize with the pain as well. When he was leaving the store, he could hear the grandpa calling out his name, probably asking a favor from him to walk the girl home. However, he quickened his pace, Much rather not spend more time with the weird girl.

Home. Where he was supposed to be safe from anything.

He was already away from those stupid people from the band, excluding Tsuna-sama. He was already away from problems. No one was there to blame him for anything. Yet, he felt his stomach twisted.

In the silence of his apartment room, a woman's voice invaded his inner thoughts.

"Hayato?"


	3. 03:

_Author: YuMto  
>Disclaimer: KHR does not belong to me.<br>Beta reader: Chocolate and caramel_

Kyoko was standing in front of her with a pile of paperwork; her usual happy face was sullen. It was break time and they were in class, doing things separately like usual. That is, until Kyoko decided to appear in front of Haru.

"What's the meaning of this, _Haru-chan_?" _Hahi? –Chan? _"I went to see sensei to return the lab keys but he congratulate me instead for finishing _this_. Didn't I say we'll do this together?" Haru gulped as Kyoko gestured at the pile of papers. Noting how things went, the teacher was probably trying to praise their 'teamwork' but only to discover Haru did everything herself. Unable to hear anything from Haru, Kyoko slammed the papers on top of Haru's desk, causing everyone looking to their direction. "We're redoing this, no matter how much effort you did! This time together! Or I'll just tell the teachers how you **refused** to work with me!"

"Hahi! No!" Haru stood up, shocked by Kyoko's threats.

"After school, wait for me in front of the entrance. I'll come by afterwards!" Kyoko firmly held both of Haru's hands, her eyebrows were frowning. Haru nodded her head vigorously; not wanting to know what would happen if she were to refuse her 'friendly' demands.

With a satisfied smile, Kyoko suggested burning the papers, her tone suggesting she wouldn't accept the otherwise. Haru could only nodded to her demands, inwardly terrified; realizing that going against Kyoko is a no-no for future safety.

As soon as Kyoko left the classroom, Haru noticed that everyone in the classroom was actually watching them. The most popular girl in the school was getting angry with one of the smartest girl, an unusual sight even in Midori High. Haru blushed in embarrassment and sat down, pretending to do her work with shaky hands.

That afternoon;

Haru waited at the entrance as told earlier. To her, it felt as if she was waiting for a friend or maybe even a boyfriend. Haru pondered on the thought 'boyfriend'. Being in an all-girls school, it was extremely hard for her to get one, especially those high class boys. A 'friend' was something Haru couldn't touch either. Her past with friends were exactly as good as it should be. "Haru-chan!" Haru turned to see Kyoko running to her direction with a small wave. No matter what she saw Kyoko was doing, Haru couldn't shake the feeling that Kyoko would still be the popular and most pretty girl in school no matter what she did.

"Sorry, did you wait long?" Kyoko asked when she's near Haru. Haru shook her head, lying to herself. The two of them began to walk wherever Kyoko wanted to lead them. Along the way, Kyoko tries to make some conversations with Haru, whom merely responded with a mere yes or no. Kyoko had not notice Haru's discomfort and continued, " Anyway, I hope you don't mind me seeing my brother for awhile before doing our project?"

"Sasagawa-san has a brother?" Haru perked her head up at the mention of Kyoko's brother.

Kyoko giggled, "Kyoko. You should call me Kyoko-chan. You'll get my brother confused if you use our family name and yes, I do. Though many people said we don't look alike. Or even behave the same way." Haru began to think Kyoko's brother as someone who was extremely quiet, smart and unpopular. Well, it wouldn't hurt to meet someone who had been handling Kyoko for all his life..

Kyoko smiled and stopped, "Well, we're here!" Haru looked around to realize that her surroundings were full of teenagers passing their way and among of the people were those who looked like delinquents.

Haru gulped, _Did Haru just dug her own grave? _

"My brother always forgot his bento and comes home late so I always bring it to him after school. I didn't know about the project yesterday so I thought of giving it to brother and telling him to bring it from now on. He still forgot about it though," Kyoko shyly smiled. _That explains why Kyoko-chan was in a hurry yesterday._ Haru felt a pang of guilt for judging her. Kyoko was saying something about going inside but Haru wasn't listening over her guilt. Instead, she followed Kyoko into the studio, not aware what she was doing. Kyoko knocked the door of their destination.

"OI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, LAWNHEAD-" "TO THE EXTREME-" "Hahahaha!"

Various conversations and noise were filling the room in front of the two girls. Haru was sweating, fearing the people in front were dangerous. Kyoko's brother was probably dragged into that kind of people. That was what Haru believed until someone opened the door and heard, "Kyoko, you brought my lunch to feed me to the extreme!" Haru saw an older guy opened the door. He had a bandage on his nose and he looked rather he was having a blast.

"Big brother! You forgot about it again," Kyoko gave the bento to the guy. Haru blinked, realizing her imagination was far fetched. Her ideal guy turned out to be the opposite. He was rather loud that Haru had to close both of her ears.

"OI! You can't run away while we're practicing, you dimwit!" A rough voice was heard from the room. It sounded familiar to Haru and more reasons why she wanted to leave this place as much as possible. The brother shouted back into the room, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" He then turned back to Kyoko and Haru, "Sorry, Kyoko, I need to get back now. Thanks extremely for the bento!" The two siblings smiled and nodded to each other.

As soon as they got out of that place, they went to a nearly café and were enjoying sundaes and cake, when Haru finally able to sighed in relief.

She was away from that dangerous place. She didn't get kidnapped or anything and her family reputation were still intact.

"Haru-chan?" Haru snapped back to reality and to find Kyoko stared curiously at her. "I was asking how should we start our report?"

"Hahi, Kyoko-chan doesn't know?" Kyoko nodded her head and Haru continued, "We could go to the bookstore. Haru went there yesterday to do her research."

"You did that for a short time?" Haru nodded and closed her self, getting ready for impact that she was arrogant. "Wow! That's really amazing of you, Haru-chan!"

"Hahi?"

"No one's actually able to finish it in a day. Now I know why you're always the top in our class," Kyoko gave Haru her sincere smile. Haru was rather dumbfounded. It was the first time a classmate actually told her that honestly. Kyoko didn't look like she was lying or trying to get to her good side.

"Ky-Kyoko-chan too," Haru gulped and covered her face with both of her hands while looking down from embarrassment. "Kyoko-chan is really popular but she gets her work down neatly. Everyone likes Kyoko-chan."

"Hm? I'm popular?" Kyoko laughed it out, "I think you got it wrong. I'm not. I'm like Haru-chan. We're friends, right? You don't need to get embarrassed." Kyoko revert her attention to her cake and mumbled, "It's too bad that I can't eat cakes so many unless it my cake appreciation day."

"Hahi? Kyoko-chan likes cakes too?"

"Haru-chan too?"

A smile began to appear on Haru's lips as she nodded her head earnestly. To think that someone actually enjoys cakes like her. For once, Miura Haru felt as she was no longer alone, for once, she felt she was truly gaining a friend.

That was also when she view cake as her symbol friendship with Kyoko.


End file.
